Seicho-No-Ie no Brasil: adaptação, expansão e assimilação pelos não-nipônicos, sob o prisma da condição pós-moderna

Abstract

The current research aims to investigate the expansion process of one of the most successful new Japanese religions in Brazil, Seicho-No-Ie. Created in 1930 by Mahasaru Taniguchi, 90% of the organization’s followers in Brazil are of non-Japanese descendants. We analyze how SNI penetrated and expanded in our religious scenery under the viewpoint of post-modernity. Among the most appealing features of this new religion we have the possibility of belonging to two different traditions without the loss of the original religious background, besides the vitalistic concept of salvation of its doctrine. In a plural religious scenery such as the Brazilian one, nomadism and hybridism are among features of the believer. A doctrine like SNI, which proposes such hybridism by gathering elements of Buddhism, Shintoism and Christianity, besides influences of western thinking such as the Christian Science and the New Thought, wouldn’t meet major obstacles in adapting in a foreign culture due to its flexibility. In our research we present SNI’s trajectory in Japan and in Brazil, from its arrival up to the point when it overcame the cultural barriers with the host society. On the other hand, we approached the main characteristics Religion assumes in the postmodern scenery and how such elements had a positive impact on the expansion of Seicho-No-Ie among the Brazilians